Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘politics’

“Show of Minor support is major”

Latest on the money-for-judges scandal detailed here Aug. 7: “Biloxi attorney Paul Minor says friends are showing up to support him during a judicial bribery trial, but prosecutors think the defense team is manipulating the jury. …During the trial, defendants have stressed their empathy and support for ‘the little guy’ and minority causes.” The jury forewoman revealed in her questionnaire that she had handed out fliers for former U.S. Rep. Wayne Dowdy, and none other than Rep. Dowdy in person dropped by to sit behind the defense table on Monday, as did Rep. Bennie Thompson.

Questionnaires also revealed that the jury is highly religious, and the Rev. Joe Doss, who is at once a lawyer, a friend of the Minor family and a retired bishop, sits with the family in a clerical collar and bishop’s purple shirt; the Rev. Doss concedes he’s looked at the jury questionnaires, “but that’s not why I’m here”. “[Defense attorney] Michael Crosby, who represents [former circuit judge John] Whitfield, quoted from the Bible in closing arguments. Crosby also managed to work in a biblical phrase one juror included on her questionnaire: ‘I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence my help cometh.'” Doesn’t Americans United for Separation of Church and State ever worry about this sort of thing? (Anita Lee, Biloxi Sun-Herald, Aug. 10).

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Update: Larry Klayman and respectability

Litigious gadfly Larry Klayman (Apr. 16-17, 2002), having cut a rare publicity swath filing mostly long-shot legal actions against both the Clinton and Bush administrations, is now setting up a Florida office on behalf of a more conventional-seeming law firm, Cleveland, Ohio-based Walter & Haverfield. (Jessica M. Walker, “Ohio Firm Taps Judicial Watch’s Klayman for Miami Launch”, Daily Business Review, Jul. 15). For more on Klayman, see Jacob Weisberg, “Nut Watch”, Slate, Jun. 6, 1998 (sues own mother), Curmudgeonly Clerk, Sept. 23, 2003 (similar). But at least Alan Keyes admires him (Timothy Noah, “Larry Klayman for Attorney General”, Slate, Jan. 24, 2000).

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Some “framing” advice

Speechwriter/ghostwriter Jane Genova (Apr. 10), commenting on one of linguistics guru George Lakoff’s suggestions for semantic reformulation of public debate: “Dems, be prepared to be laughed at when you start calling trial lawyers ‘public-protection attorneys.’ Then you’ll not only be yesterday but ridiculous.” Other bloggers, rounded up on Technorati, don’t seem to care for the idea much either.

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“The Next Sandra Day”

I’ve got an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal (also, conveniently, featured on the Journal’s mostly-free companion site OpinionJournal.com), pointing out that retiring Justice O’Connor was remarkably outspoken in criticizing the evils of excessive litigation, and suggesting that President Bush may wish to pick a successor who shares these concerns. I also discuss some very revealing comments made by the Senate minority leader last week: as OpinionJournal.com sums up the implications, “Harry Reid may be willing to give up Roe v. Wade to get a trial lawyer on the Supreme Court”. (Walter Olson, “The Next Sandra Day”, OpinionJournal.com, Jul. 7; same article at subscriber-only WSJ site).

Read On…

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Sen. Grassley and the hospital litigators

It’s not exactly a secret around Washington that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Ia.) has been a good friend to the corps of plaintiff’s lawyers who employ the False Claims Act (the so-called “whistleblower” law) to sue universities, defense firms and other federal contractors. But is he also doing favors for the team of lawyers headed by Dickie Scruggs suing many of the nation’s nonprofit hospitals over alleged failure to meet charitable obligations? The American Spectator’s anonymous “The Prowler” assembles some of the evidence (“Grassley, Lott & Scruggs”, Jun. 14).

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Publicity roundup

Texas Lawyer has a well-reported and personality-filled article, unfortunately not online, detailing how the state’s plaintiffs lawyers became “in many ways…the victims of their own success”; it happened when “tort reformers, provoked by the plaintiffs bar’s hubris, particularly as it was asserted at the state Capitol in Austin, galvanized themselves over the past 15 years to topple the trial lawyers’ dominance over Texas politics.” Also a lot about asbestos-suit reform (Miriam Rozen, “Paradise Lost; Plaintiffs Bar Bemoans End of an Era as Tort Reformers Target Asbestos”, Texas Lawyer, Feb. 28, not online). A Medill News Service dispatch from last December quotes me on the subject of class action jurisdiction (Betsy Judelson, “On the Docket: Getting Out of Madison County”, Medill News Service, Dec.). And Automotive Industries, in an ambitious backgrounder on the liability explosion, mentions my Hillsdale College speech of last year (Gary Witzenburg, “Urgent Need for Tort Reform”, April).

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Philly judges bearing checks

Just business as usual in Philadelphia:

Candidates for judge paraded before a gaggle of ward leaders assembled by consultant Pete Truman last Friday at the Airport Sheraton.

They entered one at a time. Each candidate handed each ward leader an envelope. Each envelope contained a check, $1,000 or $2,000, depending on the size of the ward.

If the ward leader planned to support the candidate in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the check was accepted. If not, it was returned.

(Gar Joseph, “Like sheep being led to slaughter”, Philadelphia Daily News, May 13). And various Philadelphia political figures convicted of crimes have emerged after serving their sentences as practitioners of a largely unregulated trade, serving as campaign consultants to judges (Tom Ferrick Jr., “Judicial process isn’t all negative”, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 13).

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Hevesi and WorldCom

With comptroller Alan Hevesi in charge, the state of New York acted as lead plaintiff (via the New York State Common Retirement Fund) in the WorldCom securities case, but according to Forbes, the large settlement that resulted may not have been such a great deal for Hevesi’s client:

“Judging by a plaintiff expert’s own estimate of shareholder losses, New York’s claim of a $317 million hit would entitle it to 1.1% of the kitty, or a mere $11 million …. Hevesi’s suit cost New York’s pension fund by deflating the value of its investments in the banks it sued. The Hevesi fund owns stakes in J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and BofA. These three banks took aftertax charges totaling $3.2 billion for WorldCom settlement costs. The fund’s pro rata share of these losses, and those of smaller-fry defendants, totes up to $13 million.”

(Neil Weinberg, “Cui bono?”, Forbes, Apr. 25).

Hevesi’s campaign ties to the private lawyers who file these suits, which have come under scrutiny before (see May 14 and Dec. 10, 2004) are again a topic of criticism in parts of the press. Lyle Roberts of 10b-5 Daily (Apr. 13) rounds up the links, including a New York Sun editorial (“Hevesi by the letter”, Apr. 12).

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